UEs in a wireless communication system may have multiple operating modes, including an active operating mode and a standby operating mode. In an active operating mode, all UE functions are available, and the UE may be transmitting or receiving communication signals or otherwise being used by a user, for example. A standby operating mode in which at least some UE functions are disabled could be useful for conserving power.
In current 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems, for example, UEs have a Radio Resource Control (RRC) idle mode. When downlink (DL) data is to be transmitted to a UE by a network element in a communication system or uplink (UL) data is to be transmitted by a UE to a network element, the UE must transition from the RRC idle mode to an RRC connected mode before data transmission begins.